Rationale:
Comprehension is very important when it comes to successful reading and the
skill of summarizing helps to assess comprehension. Children should be able to
pick out the important points in passages every time they read and in order for
them to do this, they must be explicitly taught. Practicing summarization with
this exercise will help them achieve this, and sharing it with the group is a
motivator.

Materials:

- Highlighters

- Pencils

- National Geographic article: "Emperor Penguins" on the Smart Board

- National Geographic article: "Harp Seals": one per student

- Summarizing poster with 3 points:

1. Get rid of unnecessary information.

2. Pick out the most important information.

3. Write one to two sentences that include only the important information and
conclusions drawn from the passage.

- Assessment Checklist:

Did the Student:

YES

NO

Get rid of unnecessary information?

Pick out the most important information from the
article?

Write a one to two sentence summary including
important information and conclusions?

Procedure:

1.)
"Today, we are going to learn an important skill that will help make you all
better readers. Have you heard of the word summarization?" Have students share
what they think summarization is.

2.)
Explain: "Summarization is the process of erasing unnecessary information in
what we read and picking out the main, important facts that we need to
understand the story." Explain the steps on the poster: 1.) Getting rid of
unnecessary information, 2.) Picking out the most important information, 3.)
Write a one or two sentence summary.

3.)
Let's read "Emperor Penguins" and I will show you how to summarize articles.

Book Talk: "Emperor Penguins live in Antarctica. They have ways to adapt to the
frigid weather and survive. This article describes how these penguins breed and
how the baby penguins survive. Let’s find out more about these cute creatures!”

"Winter arrives in Antarctica in March.
The continent is in the Southern Hemisphere and has seasons that are opposite
those in the north. Nearly all creatures leave except for the emperor, the only
animal that spends the winter on Antarctica's open ice. Emperor penguins are the
largest of the 17 species, or kinds, of penguins, and they spend their entire
lives on Antarctic ice and in its waters.”

First, I am going to get rid of unnecessary details. List:

- Winter arrives in Antarctica in March

-The Southern Hemisphere has
seasons that are opposite of the north

Now I am going to choose the most important details that are about our topic
emperor penguins. List:

- The emperor penguin is the
only animal that spends the winter on Antarctica’s open ice

- They are the largest species
on penguin

Finally I am going to write a one sentence summary:

"The emperor penguin is the largest species of penguin and is the only animal
that spends the winter in Antarctica’s open ice.”

5.)
"Let's practice our new skill by reading “Harp Seals”. Read the article silently
then mark out the unnecessary information with your pencil. Highlight the key
information. Write one or two sentence summary of what you have read."

6.)
"Now I want you work with a partner and share what you did to summarize your
articles." Allow about 10 minutes for groups to discuss their summaries.

7.)
"Now can I please have some volunteers share their summaries with the class?"
Point out the positive attributes of the students' summaries and suggest some
things that they still need to work on, if any.

8.)
Assessment: Students will be assessed on their summarization sentences. I
will use a checklist stated above to assess their progress. Students are
required to earn at least 2 out of the 3 checks out of the three bullets. I will
use this information to determine which kids need to work more on this skill and
work in a small group with them on a later date.